Res Life director: On-campus housing is flourishing

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat "(The failed lottery proposition) was certainly traumatic, which is unfortunate." James Van Arsdel director of Residence Life

Approximately 4,800 University of Arizona students called residence halls home this year - the highest on-campus population in nearly a decade, Van Arsdel said.

"We have been fuller, although certainly not in the 1990s," he said.

He predicted that an additional 500 beds would be filled for the 1999-2000 school year, despite the 600 applications Residence Life has already received.

"It's hard to imagine where all this ends," Van Arsdel said. "If the numbers are correct, about 90 percent of the freshman class is wanting to live on campus (next year)."

However, Van Arsdel was confident that the continuously climbing numbers will level off soon, citing "common sense" as the determinant factor.

The overflow of students desiring a space in the residence halls has been disconcerting to Residence Life this year, he said.

A plan proposed in January, which would have given incoming freshmen priority over returning students, was quickly condemned by current dorm dwellers concerned about finding themselves cut from the list of residents.

The plan, which would have used a lottery system to determine which students would return, was eventually dropped.

"It was certainly traumatic, which is unfortunate," Van Arsdel said of the failed lottery proposition. "But it was also very instructive to how important the ability (for returning students) to live on campus is."

Though the plan stirred up considerable controversy and emotions among on-campus residents, Van Arsdel was pleased overall with the outcome of the incident.

"Certainly there was a lot of heat and emotion involved," he said. "But there were a lot of students who were justifiably upset and still able to articulate a response that was positive in moving (talks) along.

"There were people who really used their educations in response to this," Van Arsdel added.

After the lottery plan was abolished, Residence Life officials still needed to find a way to accommodate the rush of new residents.

A promising lead has been the tentative acquisition of the 138-unit Casa Feliz apartment complex.

Casa Feliz apartments, 1201 E. Drachman St., have been offered to the UA by the current owners at a price of $5.1 million. Although Van Arsdel stressed that there is still no official word as to whether students will move into the complex next fall, informational fliers and a page on the Residence Life Web site have been released to announce the possibility.

If UA students are to live in the complex in the fall, the purchase will have to be approved at the June Arizona Board of Regents meeting, Van Arsdel said. From there, developments would quickly begin to take place to make the units habitable in time for the new semester.

However, the issue has yet to see any change.

"At his point, it's neither alive or dead," he said. "It's somewhere in between."

As Residence Life officials grapple with solutions to the supply and demand problem on-campus housing faces, students from the dorms viewed the situation with understanding.

"I didn't mind having two roommates this year, but I am looking forward to my apartment next year," said pre-computer science sophomore Kelly Heffner, who bunked in a triple room at Arizona-Sonora Residence Hall.

"It's too bad housing is turning out to be such a headache," Heffner said. "I hope Res. Life is able to find the answers to keep everybody happy."